Misstress of the Maze
by AngeloftheMorning1978
Summary: After a horrific car accident leaves Ariadne in a coma, the Team must go into her dreams to convince her to wake up. Only to find her subconscious is not "polite" at all.
1. Chapter 1

** If anyone has read my older work, you will know about Circe. The fearsome seductress who lives only in dreams because her body in the real world is trapped in a coma. I took that idea and went with it here. **

** The Team must save the Architect after a horrible car accident plunges her mind into a deep coma.**

** This has nothing at all to do with my "Four Lovers, Rivals, A Week at this Level, or Dream Series." Independent. **

** Take place right after the Fischer inception. **

The Mistress of the Maze

~ "Arthur." Cobb said over the phone. The Point Man picking up on the Extractor's tone.

"What?" Arthur asked. Sensing something was deeply wrong.

"I need you to try and remain calm." Cobb's voice was steady and even. The kind of voice that had practiced before having to deliver bad news.  
>"What is it? What's happened?" Arthur asked. His voice wavering slightly.<p>

"Miles called me a few minuets ago from Paris. Ariadne..." Cobb sighed. Exhausted. "Ariadne was in a car accident."

"Cobb." Arthur said his voice cold. His blood tuning to ice. He said the Extractor's name as a warning.

"Miles said she's still alive, but... he said it's _very_ bad."

"Cobb." Arthur said again. His tone that same angry warning.

"Several cars involved. Fatalities." Cobb finished. His voice reverent. "Happened this morning on her way to the airport. Her cab was struck twice during an accident on the bridge, it flew over the barrier and into the water. The driver was killed."

"What hospital is she at?" Arthur said working on auto pilot. His voice not even sounding like his own.

"Arthur... the doctors said..." Cobb tried to finish the bad news.

"What hospital is she at?" Arthur shouted into the phone.

~ A few hours earlier, Ariadne got into an old fashioned cab. It was a part of the cities efforts to step up the romance of Paris. Bringing back old cabs form the fifties. The wide luxurious sedans were a perfect ride to tour the city. One that the Architect was glad she had picked as her transport to the airport. One last tour of this beautiful city. An elegant way to say goodbye for the summer.

She had been invited by the Team to come for a visit Stateside. Cobb had a job waiting for her and she was anxious to see the others again. She had barely heard from them once the Fischer inception happened. Arthur calling her occasionally, helpful little reminders to keep a low profile for a while. Cobb offering her more work if she wanted it. Saito wiring her a generous amount of money.

It was a gorgeous day out and she told her congenial little driver to take the long way. He complied easily. Driving past all the most beautiful sights of Paris.

The driver spoke in fast clipped French about a rouge driver that cut them off on the way to the bridge. Swearing at the fast little euro car. She had laughed as he apologized for his profane language. Explaining how people didn't know how to drive.

The crash seemed happened in slow motion. The rouge car plowed into two other cars as Ariadne's cab drove onto the bridge. Her driver swerved to avoid a panicked driver ahead of them. Trying to make way for the toppling cars.

First it was three, then they quickly collided into five. Hitting and wrecking each other with furious speed. Tossing them upward like toys.

Her driver stopped artfully onto the shoulder of the bridge. Out of reach.

With a jarring bang that shook her to her bones, a car behind the cab, crashed into them.

She hadn't worn a seat belt. Her body practically tossed into the front seat. The age of the cab, the fact it was made of strong sturdy metal, protected them.

She was taking deep panicked breathes as she tired to stay calm. Her body course with raw adrenaline. Making her heart speed up to quick. Survival mode.

Her driver groaned and slowly sat up. He had hit his head on the steering wheel. Blood coming from his temple.

He had asked if she was alright. Both of them not paying attention to the horrible wreck, still happening in front of them.

He didn't have time to answer as a large truck barreled onto the bridge. Oblivious or panicked by the pileup of flaming wreckage.

She screamed as the truck plowed into them. Crushing the driver into a pulp of blood and tissue. Making his face look like freshly ground hamburger meat.

Shattering glass and sharp ugly metal cut her body and face as the truck drove off the bridge, the old cab welded onto it's grill by the sheer force of the impact. She felt the cab hitting the water. The shock of cold rushing water taking her under.

The cab broke free of the truck. It's metal, once protective, was now a death trap. She was sinking. She felt warm sticky blood on her face as she was taken under by the river.

~ Then she remembered nothing at all. She was freed of the pain. Of the fear. She could no longer feel the cold water around her.

She only remembered dreams.


	2. Chapter 2

2.

~ _News out of Paris today. A fatal car crash on a two lane bridge, took the lives of over ten people and sent three more to the hospital in critical condition. _

_ The crash was believed to be caused by a man who was fleeing police apprehension. The suspect was killed instantly when his car struck two others at an excessive speed. _

_A total of 12 vehicles were involved in this horrific collision. _~

~ Arthur snapped off the T.V. The news here was all about the accident. Showing non stop images of broken cars. Images of a delivery truck being pulled from the river. A broken, old fashioned taxi cab dangling from a crane. Water slowly spilling out as it was pulled from the cold, wet depths.

~ The Extractor and Point Man had taken the first flight to Paris. Landing, and hurriedly rushing to be at the Architect's side. At first they could not get access to her. The hospital staff thinking they might be reporters.

Ariadne had no family. No one they could call. After hours of pleading and arguing, the hospital administrator finally allowed them to see her.

Arthur almost wished that he hadn't. Half her face was wrapped in snow white bandaging. She looked like she was merely sleeping. Her small body, swimming in the mess of white bedding.

A pleasant Lady Doctor had pulled Cobb aside, explaining the horrible details of what happened to their Architect.

"Most of the damage you see is superficial. Deep lacerations to her face and body. A few broken ribs. She will lose that left eye, I'm afraid. Were mainly concerned about the coma at this point." Doctor Harmon said.

She was a tall, lean young woman. Barely out of her early thirties. Her long dark hair swept pleasingly up.

"Coma?" Arthur repeated. Tearing his eyes away from the Architect. Her face was wrapped up so that she was almost unrecognizable.

"Yes. See, the shock of the accident, the time underwater, deprived her brain of oxygen. If those teenagers had not dove into the river and gotten her out, she would have died on scene with the driver." Dr. Harmon said.

Cobb ran a hand over his hair. Smoothing it out. The worried scowl back on his handsome face.

"Is there anything you can do to revive her?" He asked as Arthur returned to looking at the helpless Architect, sleeping peaceful in the bed.

"In cases like this, it's best to let the patient come out naturally. It's only been a few hours. However, if she continues to stay in much longer... other steps will have to be explored." Dr. Harmon said.

"What steps?" Arthur said numbly.  
>"She has a slow swelling in her brain from the accident. If she were awake, we could give her medication that will reduce the swelling. We can't do that under her current state. The brain, it's functions work differently when your unconscious." Doctor Harmon told them.<p>

The attractive Lady Doctor took a deep breath and looked at Ariadne.

"If she can't wake, we might have to perform a procedure to alleviate the swelling. It would involve drilling a series of holes in the skull. Removing it. Allowing the swelling some place to go."

The Point Man and Extractor looked at Dr. Harmon. Horrified.  
>"Please keep in mind that we are not there yet. Such a procedure will be a considered a heroic last effort to temporally prolong her life." She said.<br>"Doctor..." Arthur said. Not believing what he was hearing. "Is she going to die?"

The Lady Doctor looked from the Point Man to the Extractor.

"Were going to do all we can. But the prognosis is not good. I've never seen someone come back from a head injury like this." She said.

~ Eames and Miles arrived a short while later. There was nothing anyone could do now but wait.

"Just terrible." Miles said. Genuinely upset over the loss of his most prized student. The older man sat down. Winded and exhausted.

"This Doctor Harmon seems like she knows her stuff." Cobb told the Forger. "They'll know in 24 hours what to expect."  
>"If she can't wake up, she has to go under the knife?" Eames asked. Cobb nodded.<p>

"If they have to do this procedure, it might help her or kill her." The Extractor said.

~ Arthur was not present for any of this. He stayed by Ariadne's side. Out of the rest of the Team, he always felt the closest to her. He had trained her. Was with her for most of the mission. He... The Point Man blinked back those memories. None of them would help her now.

She was breathing on her own. He was told that was a good sign. Yet, a thin nasal cannula was snaked across her nose and around her ears. Supplying her with more oxygen. The left side of her face, including her destroyed eye, was heavily wrapped. Obscuring that beautiful face he had always admired.

Arthur was torn. Helpless. There was noting he could do. No way he could help her. Her breathing was slow and steady. As if she were just... sleeping.

They were alone in the quite little room. No noise permeated from the outside world. Arthur ran his long fingers over her hand. Mindful of her IV needle and tubing.

"Ariadne... they tell me you need to wake up. You have to do it soon. Alright? Just wake up. Do it for me. Alright?" His voice was pleading.

"Ariadne?" He called again softly. Searching for a sign that she understood. Begging for her to squeeze his hand.

She gave him nothing.

He was fighting back tears he was ashamed had sprung forth. He sighed at his own foolishness. Grateful there was no one else in the room.

~ From just outside in the hall, Miles was standing. The Older man hidden from the Point Man's view. Not wanting to intrude but not being able to help but overhear.

Miles shook his head. Fighting back his own sorrow as he walked away.

~ Deep within the well of dreams, Ariadne was lost.

She was surrounded by animals. Soft and delicate. They were her friends. She was playing with them contentedly.

She stopped when she heard a voice. She couldn't place it. It sounded so strange.

'It thought I heard someone calling my name.' she thought as her way of speaking to the animals.

'No.' the animals told her. 'You didn't hear a thing. Stay here and play with us.' Their thoughts came back to her.

She was easily persuaded. She ran with tigers and cuddled panda bears. She was happy and warm and gave no thought to how strange all this was.

~ "We may have something." Cobb said a few hours later. Ariadne had just come back from a battery of testing on her damaged brain.

"What?" Arthur grumbled. He was sleep deprived and moody. He had been forced to spend the past few hours in a hospital with Eames and a very sad old man.

"Ariadne..." Doctor Harmon said slowly "Is_ dreaming_." She pulled up a series of colorful brain scans on her laptop and showed them to the Team.

"See all this color? It indicates her brain is incredibly active. It's rare, but it happens in coma victims sometimes. This is very good, it means her more complex brain functions are intact. That if she wakes up, she could make a complete recovery.

"She can't wake up." Arthur said. "I was in there for an hour."

"I know. But Mr. Cobb has an interesting idea." Doctor Harmon said looking at the Extractor.

Already, Arthur knew what Cobb had planned. The Extractor was forever an _idea man_.

"No." Arthur said. Dismissing the whole idiotic notion out of hand.

"This could work." Cobb said.

"What's that then?" Eames asked. Totally lost.

"We go into her mind. Into her dreams. We get her out." Cobb said.

"Dom." Miles said. His voice concerned.

"We've never done anything like that before, Cobb." Eames agreed. "Not with a coma victim."

"No one has." Harmon said tucking her shinny dark hair under one ear. "If this works, if you can get her to come out, we can medicate her to stop the swelling. She'll live."  
>"Or we could kill her." Arthur barked. "I won't be responsible for that."<br>"She is dead anyway if we don't do this." Cobb said. His voice certain.

"Think what it will mean for others. Not just those in a coma but the ones who have a stroke. Who are not able to communicate or understand. This could save lives if it works." Harmon argued.

"_If_ it works." Eames said rolling his eyes at the lady doctor. "Cobb, Arthur trained our girl's subconscious. It's militarized. It could get bad down there."

"Her body want's to wake up. It's not a normal inception. You don't have to fake inspiration." Harmon said.

"Cobb, did you tell her _everything_ about us?" Arthur asked looking at the Lady Doctor.

"We haven't got much time. Sarah has already started to prepare the compound." Cobb said ignoring the Point Man.

"Sarah?" Arthur repeated.

Cobb continued to ignore him.

"We have to do this quickly. No one can know." The Extractor told them.

"I can buy you six hours of privacy before the morning shift comes on duty. After that, the surgeons will want to scan her again and most likely operate." Doctor Harmon told them.

"We have only six hours to go into her mind and wake her up." Cobb told the Team.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

~ Ariadne lay sleeping. Arthur couldn't help but be reminded of the old fairy tales. Except the slumbering princess never had ugly wrappings all over her face. Yet, if the Point Man kept his eyes focused on the right side of her face, she looked just like Snow White. Full red lips, long dark tresses. He almost laughed at himself.

Silly things that fly through the mind.

Night had fallen, bringing a sudden flash of rain. Thunder was beating an ominous warning. The rain making frightful snake patterns down the window. The outside world felt cut off. They were isolated.

"Dom, this is madness." Miles was saying.

The Extractor bringing out the PASIV. The Forger was pulling together chairs for them to go under in.

"Listen to me, Dom." Miles said resting a gentle hand on the Cobb's arm.

The Extractor looked up at his mentor.

"You don't know what you'll find down there. In the mind of someone in her current state, it's disorganized thoughts. I could be extremely disturbing. You may be seeing things in her mind she has kept hidden. Even from herself." The Teacher said.

"I know that." Cobb told him. "I know what I'm doing."

"Just like you knew what you were doing with Mal?" Miles asked.

The Extractor gave the Teacher an intense look.

"Ariadne brought me back from Mal. I have to try, Miles." The Extractor whispered. Not wishing the others to hear.

"We _will_ bring her back." Arthur said leaving Ariadne's side and taking a line.  
>"Did anyone ever stop to think this Doctor <em>Sarah<em> Harmon, is just looking to make a name for herself. Get published? Messing with dream healing and all that?" Eames asked mimicking Cobb already calling her by her first name.

"Trust me, if this works, no one in the academic world can know about it. I'll lose my license." the Lady Doctor said coming into the room.

The Team all looked at her as she locked the door behind them.

"We should be alright for six hours." She nodded to them.

"Thank you, Sarah." Cobb said.

"I'll stay here. Monitor all of you while the good Doctor here takes care of Ariadne." Miles said.

The three men fell into position. Each taking a seat around the Architect.

"Ready?" Miles asked.

"Ready!" The men shouted together.

~ "Child, something is coming for you." A voice called to Ariadne. She was walking in the woods. She was getting lost.

"What _thing_?" She asked.

Mist was all around her. It was getting cold. No longer was her world peaceful and happy. Tree branches cut her face. Snagging her hair and clothing. She could feel hard rocks bite through the soles of her shoes.

She tried to focus on where the voice was coming from. But it felt like it was all around her. She peered into the darkness. There were things moving in there. Just out of her field of vision.

"Your not safe here." The things in the darkness cooed. "Come with us. We can keep you safe."

"I thought I heard voices, of people I know." She said softly.

"Your not safe here, Child. Let us hide you." It said.

"What if they find us?" Ariadne asked feeling afraid. Afraid to trust the things moving in the darkness. Afraid not to.

"If they find us, they will devour us. They will cut our flesh off with big, shiny scissors. They will sew our skin back on with black thread. Hurry Child. Come with us. _Hide_ with us." The thing hissed.

Ariadne felt the darkness advance all around her. Pulling her in with sharp little hands. The things that lived in the darkness were strong. They were hungry.

~ "Cobb, what is this place?" Eames asked.

The men "awoke" to a bizarre world of sky scrapers. They defied the laws of gravity. Bending and turning in on themselves. As of God himself had chosen to reach down and twist the entire skyline.

The buildings hovered over the men. Curling menacingly. Blocking out the sunlight as debris fell dangerously to the ground.

"Careful." Cobb said moving away from obvious danger zones. "They can't stay up like that."

"She built all of this?" Arthur asked. His voice uncharacteristically apprehensive. Their faces staring upward at the sheer wonder of such a place.

They moved away quickly as the weight of an unstable floor sheered off. Crashing onto the empty city street with a jarring noise.

"How will we find her?" Eames asked after the shock of it had worn off.

"In a normal dream, you can always find what your looking for." Arthur said. "Here..." He shook his head.

Cobb's eyes were busy. Focused. Looking, searching, for anything. Any detail that might point the way. In Limbo, his own children had guided him to Mal and Fischer. Here, in Ariadne's maze, there were no clues. Nothing to hint at a way out.

She was a great Architect. Too great.

"This way." Cobb said. Not certain where he was leading them, but knowing they had to move. The men made a quick pace through the falling city. Hearing the crashing of buildings breaking down and plunging onto the street.

"Where are the projections?" Arthur asked. His face an angry scowl. Hating it when things happened he could not understand.

"She always said her subconscious was polite." Eames offered. "Maybe there aren't any when the dreamer is in a Coma."

Cobb said nothing to this. Not knowing enough about this world.

They reached a relatively sturdy looking building.

"In here." Cobb said as if on auto pilot.

The lobby was modern and elegant. Marble floors and a cherry wood reception desk. Totally deserted. No projections here either.

"Like some kind of horror movie." Eames offered. Giving himself a chill.

A noise, the sound of wooden blocks falling and hitting the floor.

The men were startled to see a figure. Something that was not there before.

A little girl, no older then Phillipa, was sitting in a pretty red dress. Her dark hair tie neatly with a red bow. Her back to them.

She was building something with old fashioned unpainted, building blocks. The child was very focused on the construction. Stacking them up carefully. She ignored the intruders. Her world was only her blocks. She was not real. She was too perfect in looks and demeanor to be real. She was just a projection.

The men watched the eerie phantom as she built higher. She took a few steps back, admiring her careful work and investment. Then, to their surprise, she callously knocked the wooden blocks to the floor. The noise of them hitting the marble, rang out through the lobby.

"Were looking for a friend." Cobb asked. His tone gentle and kind. Like he would talk to Phillipa.

The child ignored him. Eames gave a shudder.

"Village of the Damned." He whispered to Arthur as the Point Man hissed to be quite.

Cobb carefully approached the child feeling the fear the Forger felt. But knowing they had to go on. Too late to turn back now.

"Our friend, is Ariadne. Do you know where she is?" The Extractor asked handing her one of her fallen blocks as a peace offering. The child took it, finally glancing at Cobb. An strange look on her cherub like face.

"Up the stairs." The child said in a sweet, too sweet, voice. "The Red Queen has her. Only, I wouldn't go up there if I were you."

"Why?" Arthur asked. His hard deep voice biting into the empty lobby. It's echo giving it weight.

"The Red Queen is bad." The Child said. Her methodical stacking of blocks resuming.

"Is she hurting our friend?" Cobb asked. His voice worried.

"Your friend is already hurt. The Red Queen doesn't have to hurt her anymore." The Child said indifferently.

The father in him made him worry over the pretty, well groomed, little girl. She was only a projection, but he was concerned for her.  
>"Sweetheart, why are you here by yourself?" He asked.<p>

"Because..." The child said. "I'm frightened."

The whole thing was too strange. Projections never acted like this. They were mindless automatons, who's only concern was to attack an invader. This Child was different. She seemed to be aware that this world was not real. She had fears. Such a thing in a projection was unheard of.

Cobb and his men shared a brief look. All thinking the same thing. When they returned their eyes to the little girl, she was gone.

Vanished, along with her blocks. As if she had never existed at all.


	4. Chapter 4

4

~ "What was that thing?" Eames asked. The Forger was looking nervous. The Point Man looking confused and more then a little angry.

"Just one of Ariadne's projections." Arthur said. Reason always winning out.  
>"Never seen a projection like that." Eames said. "She didn't care about us at all. Did you notice that? Also, that she's the <em>only<em> projection we've seen?"

Cobb was going to the bank elevators.

"Where are you going, Cobb?" Arthur asked. His tone cold and professional.

"Upstairs." Cobb said pressing the up button. It dinged merrily opening it's doors to a safe and empty lift.

"Why?" Eames asked. Worriedly.

"You heard the little girl. She's upstairs." Cobb said.

"She also said the _Red Queen_ was holding her." Arthur said. Putting a sarcastic emphasis on the title.

"Yeah, the Red Queen is always bad." Eames said nodding. Hanging onto the ready excuse not to go upstairs.

"You two can stay here." Cobb said. His tone calling them cowards.

Challenged, Arthur and Eames joined the Extractor on the elevator.

~ The ride upwards was slow. Full of jerking and stalling. The lift seemed to know where it was going because there were no other buttons to other floors.

They arrived at an impossibly large floor. Too big for the building. It seemed like it could not decide if it wanted to be inside or outside. So it was a strange mixture of both. Real grass and trees were growing out of the floor. Brick walls were overgrown with ivy. Windows outside showing the twisted landscape.

"Gentlemen." Arthur said. Warning them that something was not right. The subtle sound of the Point Man reading his weapon. Disengaging the safety. The other men followed suit. There was something moving around them. Hiding.

"Hello?" Cobb called out.

It seemed a foolish thing to say. It gave away their position, but the Extractor could think of nothing else to do. The strange garden looked empty. Yet, they could feel things were scurrying around them. Just out of sight. Their eyes not fast enough to catch them.

"Cobb." Arthur said pointing to something with his weapon.

Just like the girl downstairs, the vision appeared before them now. The woman was magnificent. There was no other word for it. Like a goddess. Tall and lean. Her frame almost willowy. Like a story book creature. She didn't have to tell them who and what she was. They knew her by sight alone. Her blood red dress, her long dark hair, her pale white skin.

This was the Red Queen.

All around her was a humming. A far away little tune. The kind of song that was vaguely familiar in the way that it was old. Perhaps their great grandmothers knew the words. But on the lips of the Red Queen, the song was broken and unnerving.

~ "Why have you come here?" She said. Her voice strange and disjointed. Like many people were saying the exact same thing. Giving her one voice by using many.

They were unaccountably afraid. As afraid as all mortal creatures are to such a great and terrible beauty. A frightening thing that they were enraptured by, and terrified of.

"Were... we came for our friend... Ariadne." Cobb said. His eyes never leaving the creature as she stalked on long legs towards them.

She was tall. Taller then all of them. Her figure pleasingly famine. Her red dress, sewn to her body. Fashionable and careless.  
>"We know who she is." The Red Queen said. "Why have you come for her?"<p>

"She has to wake up." Arthur said. "She needs to wake up. This world isn't real."

The Red Queens movements were fast. So fast that Cobb and Eames only saw the flutter of sheer red fabric as her hand waved at the Point Man. They turned and saw Arthur was gone. Just like the Child, he had vanished.

"Arthur?" Cobb's eyes raked over where he had last seen his friend. No evidence of him was left.

"Did he wake up?" Eames asked breathing hard. Afraid to raise his weapon to the Red Queen.

"No." The Red Queen said. "He did not wake up."

The Extractor and Forger turned to her. There was something frighteningly familiar about the Red Queen. She resembled no other person they had ever known, and yet, there was something.

Her left eye was dead. It was glazed over with a hazed gray. Milky and blind. Her pristine face was marred by the ghost eye. It's unseeing depths, seeming to see everything.

The Red Queen was beautiful. With full red lips, clear pale skin. Her one good eye was large and doe like.

"Ariadne?" Cobb breathed. Now that the Extractor invoked the Red Queen's name, Eames could see it too. See the sweet face to the Architect, molded onto the body of this impressive creature.

Her pleasing figure was marred and stretched out of proportion. She had gone from being delightfully petite to obscene and distorted. He body too thin. Legs too long. Hips too narrow. Breasts too full.

Her decimated ghost eye coming in through the real world.

Cobb breathed a sigh of relief.  
>"Ariadne..." He said. Feeling a smile come over him.<p>

Finding her was not as hard as they thought.

"You need to listen to me. You were in a car accident. Your laying in a hospital bed right now. You've been in a coma for over a day now. The doctors all tell us that if you don't wake up soon, you'll die."

He was pleading with her. Talking in his most gentle tone. Like trying to woo a flighty red bird to come to him.

"We came here, to try and wake you up." He finished confidently. Giving her a shy smile. One he knew always won a girls heart.

The Red Queen was imperturbable and not impressed.

"I'm afraid not." She said with a nasty smile. Her voice like ice.

Hands were suddenly around their ankles. Pulling them downward. Eames was shouting. Both of the men pulling at the grass. Struggling to slow themselves from being pulled underground.

Horrible images of zombies pulling them into the grave with them, ran through Cobb's mind. He tried to kick himself free as the hands pulled him underground. The last thing he saw before the earth swallowed them whole was the Red Queen. That obscene animal with Ariadne's beautiful face, smiling maliciously down at them.

~ Arthur was in darkness. Cold and lonely. He could hear crying. Sorrowful moaning.

"Hello?" He called out. He was searching the floor for his weapon. His instincts kicking in. The sobbing was louder. He couldn't find his gun. It had vanished.

Curious, and with no clear way out, he followed the sounds of crying. He wandered through tunnels that were endless. A light was far in the distance. Getting brighter and brighter. He saw her then. A petite woman in a bright red jacket. Her body wrapped up tightly into a ball on the floor. Her long dark hair covering her face as she cried into her knees.

He would know her anywhere.

"Ariadne!" He shouted racing to her. The light seemed to glow brighter as he approached.

"Arthur?" She cried out hopefully. Her head snapping up at hearing his voice.  
>"Ariadne!" He laughed freeing himself from the darkness and racing to her. Her face was tear stained and dirty. The light in the room reveled that they were in a cave.<p>

"Arthur! Oh my God!" She cried "I'm so scared! What's happening?" She cried openly as he embraced her.

"It's alright." He breathed. Relief flooding over him as her body made contact with his. The feel of her small frame with his was comforting. It feel good to finally hold her.

"What's happening?" She asked again.

"You were in a car accident." He said brushing her dark hair away from her face. Noticing a gray ghost eye. Her left eye was blind. Maybe the accident had reverberated all the way into her dream. An echo of the destruction that caused her eye to be blind in the dream as well.

He had to smile at her. A wash of sympathy for her running over him.

"Your in a coma." He told her gently. Her face upturned to him. Trusting him completely. "Your laying unconscious in a hospital bed right now."

"I don't understand." She cried. Her head returning to his chest. Sobbing.

A beautiful protectiveness filled him. A basic male need to be a comfort to her. To shelter her. Arthur was not terribly nurturing, yet he found himself soothing and comforting her.

Ariadne had never shown this side of herself before. This frightened, weak side. He had always defined her character as being very brave. Still, this was a strange world she was trapped in.

"If we can't wake up on our own, we can ride the wake up music when the dream times out." He whispered. Talking to her like a delicate child. Running his hands over her hair.

"If I'm just asleep, what are you doing here?" She asked finally.

"We came into the dream to get you." He whispered. The moment feeling particularly intimate. His breath on her hair. Her body closer to his then it had ever been before.

"You came for me?" She asked. Her voice hopeful. Surprised.

"Of course." He whispered. Running a hand over her red jacket. Pulling her closer to him. She gave a contented sigh. Relaxing.

"Can you stay with me for a while?" She asked. "Just stay here for awhile?" Her voice worried that he would leave.

"I'm not going anywhere." He said happily.

The two of them held each other as the light melded into a pleasing candle light. Casting strange little shadows that danced along the walls.

Arthur never looked to see the things hiding in the shadows.


	5. Chapter 5

5.

~ Arthur gave no thought to how he found himself like this. Only that out of all the places he had ever dreamed of, this was the most pleasant. He was somehow in a comfortable bed. Ariadne, contented now, was stretched out next to him.

She was humming a strange little tune. Old fashioned. Something he half remembered. Something he didn't know the words to. Her sweet voice was beautiful to him.

His mind felt fuzzy on the details of how he had arrived in this bed with her. He was still fully clothed, as was she. His thoughts only of how relaxed he was. How her hair smelled. How her skin felt.

"I'm so happy you came for me, Arthur." She said softly. Her delicate little fingers playing with his. His other arm around her body. Feeling the fabric of her red coat.

"Of course I came for you." he in a quite voice.

"I know you like me." She whispered back.

Their world feeling very privet. Full of all the things they had left unspoken after the Fischer inception.

"I do." He whispered back.

"Why did you make a move in the dream and not in the real world?" She asked. He kissed the top of her head. Her hair smelling sweet.

"I'm better in the dreams." He confessed.

She giggled. Not a hateful or mocking laugh. A shy feminine one that made his heart beat faster.

"Were still in the dream." She told him.

Her sweet full lips were on his. Kissing him. Arthur felt her warm little body move over him. A delicious feeling of being lost to her was washing over him.

He would lose himself to her. He was sure of it. His mind would fade away and become nothing under her kiss. He would lose himself, and not utter a word of protest.

She was over him. Her weight slight and pleasing. Comforting to him. His arms were wrapped around her. Holding her close. Loving every second of this moment.

She brought her head up to look at him. A warm smile on her beautiful face.

Suddenly, something stuck her. A wooden block had sailed out from nowhere and hit her hard on the forehead. Bright red blood spilling out over her shocked face.

Arthur turned and looked. The little girl, the Child, her face hidden in shadows. Her dress as red as Ariadne's blood, stood in the room. The Child threw another wooden block catching the Architect smartly on the shoulder.

In a voice that was not her's, Ariadne screeched.

"You horrible girl! Your horrible girl! _You horrible girl!_"

Arthur watched in horror as his lovely lady transformed. Her blood turning black and tar like. Her skin turning gray and flaky.

The Point Man's eyes grew wide as he saw her fingers stretch into gruesome black claws.

Ignoring him completely, the thing that had taken Ariadne's shape sprang cat like from the bed. The little girl in the red dress ran as the vicious Harpie in the red jacket gave chase. Running on all fours.

"I'll cut you!" The thing screeched. It's voice an awful sound of a hawk, diving for it's prey. "I'll cut your flesh from your body and sew you together with black thread!" She screamed in a savage shrill voice.

Arthur came back to his senses. Realizing that whatever he was in bed with, was not Ariadne. He stood up, his eyes resting on one of the heavy building blocks on the ground. Not sure why, he picked it up.

Another awful screech from the Harpie chasing the girl echoed through the tunnels. The Child, even though she was just a projection, was in danger.

He ran after it. A pounding in his ears as he could easily hear the thing and it's bird like screams.

"I'll find you! _I'll find you!_ You horrible girl! You think you can hide from me?"

The tunnels were each more alike then the other. He caught flashes of red, always red, darting around. Things moving in the shadows. They looked like people but when Arthur approached them, they melted back into the darkness. Afraid to come into the light.

She saw the Harpie, running and climbing on all fours now. Her long dark hair wild and matted to her head. Her arms and legs now bird like claws. Black and sinister looking. Her pale skin had morphed into gray feather like things.

The creature ignored him. Chasing only the girl. Howling in a high pitched rage that never broke. That rebounded all around the tunnels in an angry, important war cry.

Arthur was never afraid in dreams. He was always secure in the knowledge that he would wake up safe and sound in the real world. That the things he saw in there were not real. But this place was different.

Monsters lived here.

The Point Man finally caught sight of the child. Her red dress easy to spot. The cave was a maze. It's tunnels populated with poor light, things hiding in shadows and it's never ceasing echoes of the Harpie.

"Here!" He shouted at her. The child catching sight, and running to him. Her little hand enclosing in his big one as they ran away from the demon behind them.

"This way!" The Child shouted at him as she pulled him into a hairpin turn. Arthur allowed the child to lead him. Not knowing the way out, and the creature close behind them.

Almost like magic, they were in the lobby again. Its marble floors, it's cherry wood reception desk.

The Child closed a heavy door on the subterranean tunnels.

"No!" Screamed the Harpie. "No! You _horrible_ girl! I'll get you! Ill get you for this! I'll cut you!"

The demon's vulgar words were cut off by the Child shutting the door tightly. Locking it.

Arthur was breathing hard. His eyes wide at the panic of what he had just seen.

"What was that?" He breathed. He didn't realize that he was still holding the wooden block in his free hand.

"The Red Queen. I told you not to go up there." The Child said pulling the block free from him and returning it to the others.

She sat down on the marble floor of the lobby. Her back to him. She began her careful, precise building.

"What?" Arthur panted. Looking at the door that was their only protection from the Harpie. "How did you find us?" He finally asked.

"I have to keep building." The Child said as an answer.

Her pretty red dress, spread out on the marble floor as she sat cross legged. Her eyes intent on the construction.

"As long as I keep building, the Red Queen can't find me. I _have_ to keep building." She told him.

"I need to find my friends. We got separated up there." Arthur told her. His normal, steadfast decorum shaken. Never in dreams had he seen such things.

"No. Don't go back up there. You can't help them. Not now." The Child told him.

"I have to get my friends." Arthur growled growing angry with the pretty child.

She paused her building. Not turning around.

"Go outside." She told him.

He believed her. The Child seeming to posses intuitive knowledge about this dream space. Perhaps she could guide him to Cobb and Eames. To Ariadne.

The Child remained where she was sitting. Docile in front of her blocks. Ignoring him as he marched outside.

The twisting skyscrapers towered overhead. There precarious architecture forcing them to slide off. Great crashing sounds echoing from far away.

Inside, the Child built. Methodically stacking her plain wooden blocks. An eye flickering to Arthur outside. He was looking for his friends.

Coldly, the Child knocked a small tower down. At the same moment a monstrous pile of rubble from a building fell on the Point Man. Crushing him. Killing him.

The Child's face was immovable. Hidden behind her blocks. She made no apologies for her actions. Showed no remorse. She just built higher.

Finally, she stepped away from her creation, viewed her labor critically, and knocked them apart again. The sounds of the wood hitting marble. A lonely sound in the empty lobby.

~ Arthur always woke up serenely. No matter how many times he was shot in the head, thrown from a roof or had a building fall on him. He never woke up in a panic. His eye slowly opened.

"What are you doing? It's too soon." Doctor Harmon said staring at him as he looked around the hospital room.

The Point Man sighed and pulled out his dice. Red, how he hated red.

"I woke up." He breathed.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

~ "Wait, so why can't you go back into the dream again?" Doctor Harmon asked.

"Because, going into someone's dream is like catching a train. You all have to go in _together_ in order to be at the same point." Arthur explained. Feeling frustrated.

"If one of them wakes up, then he can't meet back up with the others." Miles told her.

He was carefully brushing back a strand of Ariadne's hair. A worried look on the old man's face.

"Dom and Mr. Eames are alone in there now." he whispered.

"Lets just hope they can find her before the Red Queen really get going." Arthur said sadly.

"Tell me about this Child you kept seeing. This little girl in the red dress, with the building blocks." Miles asked handing the Point Man a cup of hot tea.

Arthur was fidgeting and nervous. He wanted a cigarette. Badly. But he didn't want to wander away from Ariadne's bedside. The Architect, Forger and Extractor were all still in the dream. The Point Man having been kicked out by the building falling on him.

"She was building things. With blocks. She told me she had to build them or the Red Queen would find her." Arthur explained. Feeling silly.

The whole idea of it was ridicules.

"And you saw this woman? This Red Queen?" Miles asked.

"I think so. That girl said it was her." Arthur told the Teacher.

"What is it?" Doctor Harmon asked.

"In the chambers of the human heart, there are always battles against good and evil. That's been true since the dawn of man. I think Ariadne, in her weakened and confused mental state, has allowed that evil part of her, to gain control." Miles mused. His smooth and steady cadence carried an air of knowledge. Of trust.

"The Red Queen represents evil?" Doctor Harmon asked. Brushing back a strand of hair. Watching Ariadne sleep peacefully.

"Naturally." Miles said. "What is more evil then a Red Queen?"  
>"What about the little girl?" Arthur said. "I mean, she wasn't exactly good. She didn't help us to find Ariadne. I'm pretty sure she knew that building was going to fall on me."<p>

"I'm not sure what the Child represents. Other then innocence. The real worry for us is, that even if Dom and Mr. Eames do manage to wake Ariadne... that the Red Queen will be in control."

"What?" Arthur challenged. "What does that even mean?"

"It means that if Ariadne wakes, she might not be our Ariadne anymore." Miles said sadly.

Doctor Harmon nodded.

"People's personalities change all the time after sever head injuries." She told them.  
>"The dreams just give the phenomenon shape and symbolism." Miles agreed.<br>"Are you saying that if Ariadne wakes up... she could be the Red Queen?" Arthur asked. The memory of that evil Harpie chasing the Child rushed back to him.

He felt his heart skip a beat at the terror of the idea.

~ Down in the dream, Eames wandered a maze of hallways. He was in a refined home of somewhat. A mansion. The carpets were thick, and wallpaper expensive looking.

'To bad they neglected the power bill.' Eames mused to himself as he stumbled around in nearly pitch black. He carried an old fashioned metal flashlight. It's beam not powerful enough to cut through the shadows all around him. It only gave him enough light to barely fend off the sinister darkness.

Yet, that darkness was not empty. He kept hearing things. Seeing movements out of the corner of his eyes. When he shone a feeble light onto it, they were gone. Slipping deeper into the shadows as if they were playing a game. A game he was losing.

They were laughing at him. Closing in on him. He could hear movements behind him. Hisses and whispering.

"Is he alone?"

"Yes, the others are not here."

"Quite, he'll hear us!"

"All alone?"

The Forger ran. All his life his mother had loved fairy tales of vicious creatures who existed in dreams. Lived in darkness. Things that only were brave in shadows. The moment he heard a well behaved little girl say 'Red Queen' he knew it had been a mistake to go on this mission.

With a childlike respect for what was lurking in the unseen places, the Forger dove into a room. Not caring where it lead or if it was occupied.

The things in the shadows were chasing him. Starving and ready to attack. He didn't have to look behind him to know they were close. He could hear their claws scraping on the door as he slammed it shut.

Ghouls who were hungry. Wanting to eat his flesh and suck the marrow out of his bones.

He was breathing hard as he kept the light from the flashlight on his face. That same childhood knowledge, that as long as he stayed in the light. He would be safe.

"Don't run from them." A voice said. A sweet child's voice. The sound of wooden blocks making contact with a hard marble floor.

Eames started and shown his flashlight on the voice. The light barely cut into the pitch black of the room.

He could clearly see the Child. She was sitting on the floor. Her pretty red dress neatly spread out before her. Careful not to wrinkle it. The Child ignored the light on her as she kept building. Placing her blocks into intricate towers around her. A city of wooden blocks. She paid him no mind as she built higher. Light or no, she kept building.

"What?" The Forger gasped. Realizing his breathing was labored. From his fright, from his run.

"Never run from them." She told him plainly. "If you run, they _have_ to chase you. It's their nature."

"What happens, if they catch me?" He asked. Feeling he was a child himself. Willing to believe the laws of this world.

The Child paused in her work and looked up at him. Her sweet face half hidden by her blocks.

"Don't let them catch you." She warned him simply.

"What are they? What's in the darkness?" He asked. Approaching her. Trying to keep the inadequate light on both of them.

"How should I know? I don't let them catch me." The Child said returning to her meticulous work.

The Forger spotted a light then. Warm and welcoming. Far in the distance. His instincts were to run to it. He knew he would be safe in that light. But he knew he mustn't run. The girl was right, the things in the darkness were all around him here to.

"Be careful Mr. Eames." The Child warned. Her voice haunted. The Forger turned to look for her, but she was gone. Blocks and all.

~ The light was soft and glowing. A warm hue. A safe dry place.

As Eames approached, he realized he was in a little sitting room. A cozy cottage with a storm outside. He was soaking wet and cold.

"Oh my!" A grandmotherly woman cried out. "Don't you look a fright?" She started bustling her small plump little figure around him. Pulling him in from the rain.

Unaccountably, Eames was drenched. He had no memory of even being out in the wet. His clothing chilling him further.

"Now, Love." The Old Lady said pulling free his water soaked jacket and forcing him to sit in front of a warm hearth.

"You dry yourself by the fire." Told him sweetly. "This fire is good and bright. Keeps away the damp and the things that live out there in the darkness." The old woman told him, pulling a bright red shawl tighter across her plump little body.

She had a pleasing English accent. One that made Eames feel more comfortable. As if he was in his grandmother's house.

She offered him a cup of tea and scolded him gently for drinking it to fast.  
>"Tell me, why were you out on such an awful night?" The old lady asked. Returning to her knitting.<p>

Bright red yarn.

"I was looking for someone." The Forger said feeling the hot drink warm his body up. He looked around the cozy little home. A picturesque story book cottage. Complete with a lovely grandmother.

"Looking for a girl, were you?" The Old Lady said with a chuckle.

"Yes." He admitted. "She's lost and we can't find her." Eames admitted.  
>"Who's <em>we<em> dear?" The Old Lady asked, humming a little tune. A perfect little song for an old lady.

"My friends. We got separated." The Forger said taking another sip of tea.

He felt strange.

"Must not be good friends. They left you to the creatures that live in the darkness." The Old Lady mused.

"What... what lives in the darkness?" Eames asked watching his hand move back and forth. Fascinated by it.

"Things..." The Old Woman chuckled.

He looked up at her. Seeing her face for the first time.

Her left eye was dead and a gray. A ghost eye.

Eames could not focus properly as he watched the old woman melt away. The Red Queen taking her place.

"Things that can only live in darkness. Things much different from you."


	7. Chapter 7

7.

~ She was cutting him. In her claw like fingers, were scissors. They made a slicing sounds as they cut into his skin like fabric.

The Forger did not cry out or complain. He felt a vague discomfort at the feeling of cold, sharp metal moving around under his skin.

Cutting, cutting, cutting.

The sharp little snips of metal on metal, biting through the still air. Eames lay prostrate on the table. Nothing held him down as his senses were dulled and his instincts were stunted.

He was lost to what was happening to him. His own red blood on the Queen's long fingers as she cut away his flesh.

"You never should have come for her." The Queen said in a beautiful melodic voice. It was soothing, and sweet. Hiding the terrible creature that lurked under it.

"She was happy here, with us. Content." She told him setting the scissors down and nimbly picking up some black thread.

She showed him the dirty, coarse black string. The dull, thick needle. She started to sew his skin back together. Piece by piece.

Humming, always humming, a far away little tune. That same tune the Red Queen always hummed. Sweet enough to entice a listener, then turn them to stone at it's chilly melody.

A tear was rolling down the Forger's face as he realized he felt no pain.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked. His voice small and helpless. "Why not just let us go?"

"Go?" The Queen scoffed. "Never. I will _never_ let you go now that you have wandered into my maze. You really should have stayed in the waking world, Mr. Eames." She told him as she resumed her sewing.

Eames found the strength to look down as his chest. His body marred with blood and black stitches. Crisscrossed like railroad tracks along his body.

He couldn't move. Couldn't get up off the table. A weight was over him that was slowly robbing him of breath.

"What are you going to do to me?" He asked. Feeling calm. The shock of what was happening to him, not allowing him to panic.

"I am preparing you, for my friends. The ones who live in the darkness. They like their meat fixed a certain way." She cooed. As if speaking about a favorite pet.

The Forger turned his head and looked. Out of the darkness were the shapes of people. Huddled together. Just outside of the light.

Their skin, pale and ghostly.

Their mouths, blood red.

Their teeth, glistening white and sharp.

Their eyes, dead and milky. Blind.

"Your going to feed me to them?" He asked. A fear approaching him. His blood pumping hard. Making his body come alive.

"Of course. All things must eat Mr. Eames. Even ones as different as they." She told him. Her beautiful voice like a song.

She continued to hum that far away little tune of hers. Her voice sweet even if the melody was macabre and unnatural.

The Forger concentrated on the Queen's face. She really was beautiful. She held Ariadne's stunning features with her. The lovely lips, the wide doe like eye. But her ghost eye, horribly marred by the accident, threw off the look. Made her appear more sinister. Evil.

"Ariadne?" Eames asked. A last ditch effort to bring the Architect back. "Can you hear me? Please, you can stop this. She... she is _not_ in control!" He found himself crying.

The Queen only ignored him. Her eye fixated on the stitching.

"Ariadne! I know your still in there! I know this isn't you! Please! Please stop this!" He shouted.

Suddenly, the Red Queen jumped and screeched in pain. Her serene, beautiful face stretching into a face of agony and distress. She made bird like shouts as the Forger was suddenly free.

Eames sat up over the table and jumped free. The Red Queen howling in pain as her long arms and fingers were clawing at her back.

The Forger caught sight of the long silver scissors sticking ghastly out of her back. The light reflecting off their shinny handles.

"_Your horrible wicked girl!_" The Queen screeched in pain.

Eames felt a hand take his and he jumped. The Child, her red dress, her dark hair, was pulling the Forger away.

"We have to leave!" She told him. Pulling him hard as he held his chest. The feeling that his skin would come off if he didn't hold it in place.

~ He trusted the Child. Allowed her to pull him away from this room of horrors.

Like wild animals after prey, the people who lived in the darkness chased after them as the Red Queen howled in rage.  
>"Get them!" She cried. Her voice becoming bird like. A sharp loud shriek. "Bring the girl to me!" Her horrible wail rebounded along the walls as Eames and the Child ran.<p>

They were in a maze. Polluted with light and debris form destroyed buildings. The things from the darkness were afraid of the light. It slowed their hunt.

"Get them!" Screeched the Queen advancing. The scissors now pulled from her back. Their blades covered in bright shinny blood that perfectly matched the Queen's dress and lips.

She knocked out the lights with the bloody scissors allowing her ghouls to chase them.

"Here! Here!" The Child cried pulling the Forger down a changing maze. They were now in a hotel hallway. Big, and old fashioned. With room numbers fashioned onto the doors in metal.

The things that live in the darkness were gone. Foiled by the change of the maze.

"They won't be long in finding us." The Child whispered. Still holding the Forger's hand. They stopped at an elevator. The little girl pressing the down button. Waiting for the lift to arrive.

Eames looked down at his chest. Blood spilling out.

"I have to find Arthur and Cobb." He told her. Breathing hard. "We have to find Ariadne." He added.

A howling came from somewhere in the depths of the hallway.

The Red Queen was coming.

"We don't have time." The little girl said as the elevator door opened.

Eames was distracted by the screeching of the Red Queen. He never saw the empty elevator shaft. Never realized till it was too late the Child had pushed him in.

He fell an impossible height down the shaft. Felt his body making hard contact with the floor.

~ The Forger jumped back into the waking world. His body soaked with sweat.

"Eames!" Arthur was saying. Tying to calm him down.

The Forger shook himself free of the chair he was sleeping in. He took in the hospital room. Ariadne, sleeping on her bed, Cobb by her side. Both of them still in the dream.

Arthur, Miles and Doctor Harmon looking at him worried.

"It's alright Mr. Eames." Miles was saying in that soothing voice of his. "Your out now."

The Forger's hands went to his chest. Pulling open his shirt. Running his fingers over his perfect, unmarred flesh. No cut, not bleeding, no stitches.

"Eames." Arthur said. "What happened?"

"I..." Eames stammered. His hand running over his skin again. "I woke up."

The Forger's hands dug into his pocket. His breathing ragged as he fumbled out two worn poker chips. He rubbed them together quickly. Their red and gold colors flashed at him. They looked normal and acted normal.

How he hated the color red.


	8. Chapter 8

8.

~ Cobb wandered around the endless streets. His feet feeling heavy and clumsy. He had been walking forever. No end was in sight. The only thing he was grateful for was that the buildings had stopped their hazardous falling.

The light in the sky didn't waver or move. Time had no meaning here so the sun never set or revolved. It stayed constantly bright out. He had been safer then his companions.

The streets were gray and empty. Nothing grew in this place. No trees, or grass. Nothing about it was natural. The Extractor had found himself lost in the city for hours. Trapped in a maze of buildings that hovered menacingly above him. Ready to fall. Ready to crush him.

Cobb carefully evaded any sign that something might fall on him. He couldn't afford to be killed.

He could not wake up. Not now. Ariadne needed him too much. He owed her.

Miles couldn't understand it. No one could. She had kept him from being lost during the Fischer inception. Kept his mind together, focused on the real world. If it had not been for the Architect's gentle intervention, Cobb would have stayed in Limbo forever and never made it back to his children.

Now the time had come to repay her for what she had done.

~ Instinct lead him to a building. It looked the same as any other. Gray and generic. Yet, he was draw to it. He felt he had been here before. That it was the only place he could find Ariadne.

He charged into the empty lobby. It's elegant marble floors, its cherry wood reception desk. He looked carefully for any sign of his Team. But this dream suddenly felt very empty. Like it had when he and Saito existed in Limbo together. He could feel the dream was becoming even more empty.

"Sorry about the long walk." A voice said. "It was the safest place for you. The Red Queen doesn't like to go outside. She knows I can hurt her out there." A voice said.

Cobb turned around to see the Child. She was sitting on the floor, patiently building. Stacking towers in intricate patterns.

Sympathetic to her, Cobb knelt down and handed her an errant block. The Child didn't look at him as she took it. He watched her build. Each tower different. Each position new.

"Arthur and Eames?" He asked after a while.

She violently knocked down her blocks. Cobb watched out the big windows as a massive area of the city collapsed and fell.

"I _had _to wake them up. It was too difficult to hide all of you from her." The little girl explained.

"From the Red Queen?" Cobb asked picking up her blocks. Playing the game with her.

"Yes." the Child said starting to rebuild.  
>"Why do you knock them down? You work so hard to build the towers, why knock them down?" Cobb asked. His voice was kind and understanding. The same way he spoke to his won children.<p>

"The Red Queen is smart. Just as smart as me. She can figure out the mazes quickly. I have to keep changing it. I have to build it and destroy it. Build it again. That way she won't find me. Wont find you." The little girl told him. Her methodical building absorbing her.

"Your building mazes." Cobb said softly. The pieces of the puzzle fitting together.

He noticed for the first time dark horrible stitching across her legs. Sewn with thick black threat. The wounds cut and sloppily sew together again.

"Who did that to you?" He asked.

"She did." The Child said. "She tricked me. Told me I would be safe with her. She cut me and sewed on me with her black thread."

"How did you get away?" He asked.  
>"I built a maze to keep her out. It was easier then, but it's harder now. She's so much stronger. I'm so tired." The girl said in a sad voice.<p>

Cobb looked at her. Really looked at her face. He took in the black stitches on her arms and legs. Snaking up the sleeves of her dress. Her long dark tresses. Her sweet face. Her eyes, one brown and doe like, the other dead and ghostly.

"If I were in a dream for twenty four hours, or one day... how long would the dream last?" He asked. He had to be sure. Had to be certain.

"Two hundred and eighty eight hours." She told him. "Twelve days." She added easily. Her answer was Automatic and without thought.

"If I went down to a second level?"

She had to stop and think a second.

"Three thousand... four hundred and fifty six hours, or... one hundred and forty four days or Five months."

"A third level?" Cobb asked. His breathing quick.

Her eyes, good and damaged both, batted back and forth as she thought.

"Five years." She told him finally. The third level, would last five years."

"Ariadne." Cobb breathed a sigh of relief. "Why didn't you tell us? We were looking for you."

"I was afraid, Cobb." She told him. Her sweet little face showing the youthful features of the Architect.

"I'm still afraid." She confessed. Her child's voice small and heartbreaking. "What happened to me?"

"You were in a car accident. Your in a coma. We have to wake up or your going to die." He said gently. Smiling down at the Child. Feeling an affection her the same as he felt to his own children.

"She won't let me go. I've tried, she won't let me go." The little girl said. Tears springing out of her good eye. "She's so _strong_, Cobb. I'm so tired. I can't build anymore."

"Were going to wake up now." He told her confidently taking her hand. The two of them standing up.

Music, music was playing thought the lobby from hidden speakers. Not the wake up music Cobb was hoping for, but that same lullaby the Red Queen was humming. Cobb felt a shiver run across his flesh as the Child whimpered.

"She's found us." The little girl said.


	9. Chapter 9

9.

~ Ever a protective father, the Extractor picked the Child up and held her tightly. His instincts as a parent making him care for her as he would James or Phillipa.

"Cobb." She cried softly grabbing hold on his neck. One of her wooden blocks still in her hand. "It's me she wants. Just let me go and you can get away. I'll make sure you can wake up."  
>"I'm not leaving you here." Cobb whispered as his eyes raked over the empty lobby.<p>

Looking for the Red Queen. Her insidious music heralding her arrival.

"It's almost time for the dream to end. We just have to evade her for a little longer." The Extractor said giving her a reassuring smile.

"We can't, I can't build anymore!" The Child cried.

The haunting song blared louder across the still lobby as Cobb's eyes searched for a way out.

"You said she was afraid of being outside?" Cobb asked. Holding the Child closer to him.

"Yes, her pets can't go into the light. They hate the light. She afraid one of my buildings will fall on her." The Child said.

"Then that's where we need to be." Cobb said.

He watched in horror as on of the elevators in the lobby dinged and opened. Monstrous things spilled out.

People, skin pale and blue. Their eyes dead, their lips blood red. The stayed close to the shadows. Hugging the walls. Afraid of the natural light spilling out of the windows into the lobby.

With a shutter, the artificial lights went out. Casting a cold deadness to the lobby.

Emboldened by the new darkness, the things that live in darkness advanced. The fragile light from the outside still protected and surrounded Cobb and the Child but the creatures stalked towards them, just out of reach.

Then, she appeared. A great and terrible beauty. The Red Queen was a stunning creature. Long and lean. Her features stretched and distorted. Her body draped in blood red.

She casually strode to Cobb and the child on long, spider like legs.

"Let her go, Cobb." She said in that harmonic voice of hers. He face angry and divine all at one. "Let her go and I will allow you to wake up."

The creatures around her were hissing angrily. Hungry for a meal.

"No." Cobb said. Feeling Ariadne, still in child form, breathing hard against him. Trembling. Crying softly.

He hugged her tighter to him. Mindful of the gruesome stitches on her legs and arms.

"Do you think that if you bring her back out that she will return to you as your perfect little Architect?" The Red Queen said in Ariadne's sweet voice.

An echo of the beautiful Architect returning to her.

All apart of her trickery.

"She's already gone, Cobb." She said shaking her head. "I'm already too powerful. When your Ariadne's physical body wakes, I'll be the one in control."

Cobb held the Child closer. Thinking of what the Red Queen was saying. Hoping it was not true.

"The Child is already too weak. She won't be in control. Your Ariadne is lost. Now, give me the girl." The Red Queen said.

"If anything you said was true, why do you need her? If she really is so weak, why try and take her at all?" Cobb asked. Inching closer and closer to the doors. The Child holding tight around his neck. Her face hidden by her hands and hair so she wouldn't have to look at the Red Queen.

"I think your bluffing. I think you need to destroy her before you can take Ariadne's body in the real world." Cobb told her.

The Harpie attacked.

The Red Queen morphed out of her beautiful shell like it had been a costume and flew at them. Her hands and feet like claws. Her shrikes loud and enough to deafen the Extractor.

Holding the Child tightly in his arms, Cobb ran out of the lobby into the streets.

The creatures surrounding the Queen, her "pets" stayed in the darkness. In safety. The Harpie however, knew no such limitations. She flew through the large windows onto the outside street. Buildings were falling all around them as a faint music was echoing around them. Loud long horns. Drawing out a slow menacing melody.

"Cobb!" The Child screamed as the Harpie made a dive for them and missed. "It's the wake up music!"

The Child was right. The horns, the singing, it was unmistakeable.

"Hold onto me!" Cobb shouted as the Harpie flew around in a wide angle and made another drive for them.

Cobb ran to the safety of the buildings. The Harpie's flight blocked by falling rubble.

"Stop!" Cried the Child when they reached one particularly precarious tower. It looked ready to fall, nothing appeared to be holding it up.

"We can't stay here." Cobb was panting as the Harpie was making another dive.

"Put me down." She ordered. Cobb did as she asked, placing her gently on the ground.

With her one good eye on the demon in flight, the child dropped her wooden block on the street.

The building fell apart. Collapsed and crumbled out of sheer exhaustion. Cobb tried to cover the Child as the heavy steel and concrete fell on the both of them. He remembered hearing the screams of the Harpie as they woke up.

~ Cobb opened his eyes to the real world. His vision adjusting to the dim little hospital room. Eames and Miles noticed he was awake and went to him. Telling him he was out.  
>"Ariadne?" Arthur was saying. The Point Man was standing next to the invalid's bed. Her breathing was fast and sharp. Her face bandaged. Her one good eye was open and staring at them.<p>

"What...?" She was panting. Her face afraid. "What..."  
>"You were in a car accident." Arthur said. Not able to think of anything else to tell her. To explain what had happened.<p>

She was breathing hard as the men and Doctor Harmon gathered around her bed.

"Arthur?" She asked her eye catching sight of the Point Man. He nodded and took her hand. A worried look on his face as he brushed back her hair.

She smiled when she saw Miles standing next to him. Eames was on the other side of her bed next to Harmon as the Doctor was taking her vitals.

She gave Cobb a weak smile as the Extractor stood at the foot of her bed.

"Never... I've never been so happy... to see such handsome men." She breathed. A smile coming to her face.


	10. Chapter 10

10.

~ It seemed getting her out of the coma had been the easy part. Right after she woke up, she was taken away to be scanned and tested all over again.

"My head's_ big_." She was crying. Feeling at her bandages.  
>"No." Arthur was reassuring her. "It just <em>feels<em> big."

"It's normal size?" She asked. Her voice small and childlike. Tears rolling down her cheeks as her room suddenly became alive with activity. Doctors and nursing staff all around her.

His face was close to hers as she was wheeled away on the stretcher for her MRI.

"It feels so big." She cried again as the Point Man soothed her. Reassuring her.

~ The medication to reduce the brain swelling was given. The doctors asking her questions. Showing her pictures of everyday things and making her name them. All to test her memory. To test her brain to make sure it wasn't damaged.

~ The Architect was cranky and complained how her head hurt. She squinted at the bright lights but was afraid of turning the lights off. Of being in the dark.

Hours and hours this went on. The storm abated, waned away.

Ariadne was not allowed to eat or drink anything until 24 hours had passed. A safe window since she woke up.

She complained bitterly that she was thirsty and hungry. That her head hurt, she wanted to sleep, she was uncomfortable, she didn't like her hospital gown, she wanted to go home.

With nothing left for them to do for her, Cobb, Eames and Miles went home. Arthur stayed.

~ "I cant see out of this eye." Ariadne said in an exhausted voice at the night approached yet again. She had been discontent all day. With the hospitals tests and scans. Never ending vitals. No one willing to tell her if she was going to be alright.

Arthur sighed. Doctor Harmon said it was best not to tell her about the loss of her left eye till a plastic surgeon was ready. The surgeon would assure her he could fit her with a glass eye. Removing the ghost eye and replacing it so no one would ever know.

The Point Man felt if she was strong enough to survive Limbo, a car crash and the Red Queen, she was strong enough for this.

"Ariadne, you lost your eye in the crash." He said pulling a new night gown out of a carrier bag. Out of all her complaints that day, the hospital gown was something he could fix.

She took the news numbly. Saying nothing. Her face a deep scowl.

"So it's gone?" She asked finally. Her voice hard.

"Yes." He told her bravely. "There will be a plastic surgeon to see you in a few days. After we get the all clear from you neurologist, he can operate and fit you with a glass one."

She nodded and started striping off her hated hospital gown. The Point Man, trying to respect her decency, looked away as he help slid the modest yet feminine gown over her head.

It was a pale lavender. Nothing red.

He was still a man however. Still susceptible to catching a quick glimpse of her soft milky skin. Marred and bruised from her accident. Tight black stitches etching up one side of her body. Closing the wounds from her accident.

Cobb had told him everything in the dream. Eames had given them an all too elaborate detail of what he went through with the Red Queen. Arthur had to be grateful his own experience with the demon of the dream was so... benign.

He wondered if Ariadne had not sensed her body being sew together. Even in her coma. The doctors stitching her back up to stop the bleeding. If that was why something like the sewing had fallen down into the dream. Become a weapon of the Red Queen. A favorite form of torture.

"I want to see it." The Architect said irritably. Her head ache never truly abating.

"Ariadne." Arthur tried to say soothingly.

"I want to see it." She told him again.

~ In the tiny but clean little bathroom the Point Man carefully removed her bandages. His fingers were light and gentle. Mindful of her pain.

He slowly reveled a long scar. Sewn with black thread.  
>"The cut was deep. Why they had to stitch it." He explained.<p>

"Is it bad?" She asked. Not able to keep the tear from her eye. The worry in her voice.

"It's red and swollen. I'm sure the plastic surgeon can fix any scars." He told her kindly. The laceration to her face went from her forehead to her jawline. A big ugly gash.

"What about my eye?" She asked.

A medical patch covered her decimated eye. Keeping debris out of it. Arthur took a deep breath before taking the patch off.

Just like in the dream, the eye was dead. Milky and blind. It looked like clouds as settled over the beautiful brown.

The Architect grew tired of not knowing and turned to the mirror.

"Oh God." She breathed when she saw her reflection. The long gash, the black stitching. She took a deep breath and looked closer at her face. Her new eye.

"To tell you the truth, it's not as bad as I thought it would be." She admitted after a while.

Arthur breathed a sigh of relief. The only thing he could think to do was take her into his arms. Plant small delicate kisses on her face. As close to his stitches as he dared. Fearful he would hurt her.

~ It started to rain again. The Point Man was putting the Architect back into her bed as if she were a child. She was somehow more peaceful now. Seeing what her face now looked like.

"Thank you, for bringing me the nightgown." She told him. "I hated that hospital gown."

~ Arthur stayed the night as she drifted off to sleep. She was afraid of the dark. Insisted the lights be left on. She would sleep for an hour or so before nightmare woke her.

"Help, help me, help me." She whimpered in her sleep. Arthur would leave the chair he had been sleeping in and go to her. Her nightmares always invading her sleep.

"Keep the lights on." She whispered as he crawled into the hospital bed with her.

"There's nothing there." He said wrapping her up in his arms. Kissing her. Her petite little body molding perfectly against his.

"There's nothing in the darkness." He repeated. The couple falling asleep as a pale stream of light shown protectively over their bed.

**Two months later...**

~ The plastic surgeon had repaired the potential scaring to her body and face. Fitted her with a costume made glass eye.

"It looks just like the other one. Can't tell the difference." Eames said. His face pressed close to Ariadne's The pair of them obnoxiously engaged in a staring contest.

"That's the point." Arthur barked. Feeling annoyed.

"It's a nice eye, Darling. Looks just like the left one." The Forger assured her.

"The right one is real, the left is glass." Ariadne laughed.

Cobb out of curiosity was looking over the Forger's shoulder at the new eye.

"It's a state of the art procedure. It can move just like my old one and doesn't pop out. No one would ever know it was glass." She told them happily. Moving both her eyes in perfect sync.

Her left eye winced slightly.

"It's alright, I just have to get used to moving it." She smiled.

Her scares were nothing more then angry pink lines now. Easily covered up with make up as they healed. It was strange to think she had been so close to the edge of death only two months ago.

"I'm going for coffee." Eames announced.

Bored with the Architect.

"You guys go ahead I have a lot of work to catch up on." Ariadne said with a smile as Arthur stood to go with him.

The Team was together in Paris again. Working on a new Extraction job. Happy to have their Architect back.  
>"You sure?" Arthur said kissing her cheek. She nodded.<p>

"Cobb?" She said as soon as the others were gone.

The Extractor smiled at her.

"I can't thank you enough for what you did for me. Down in the dream. Everything I put you through." She said sadly.  
>"We just wanted you back. It was worth it." Cobb said. Embarrassed. Not meeting her gaze.<br>"What the Red Queen did, I'm just… so sorry." She said

"I was just a dream." He told her.

They sat in silence for a long time.  
>"I never got a chance to thank you for helping me on the Fischer inception." He told her. "I don't think I would have made it back to my children if it hadn't been for you."<p>

She smiled.

"I guess were even now." She laughed. A forced laugh. Forced small talk.

The Extractor looked uncomfortable.  
>"Coffee sounds really good right now. I think I'll join them." He said with a smile. "Sure you won't come?"<p>

"No, I want to stay here and draw." She told him politely.

Cobb nodded and walked to the fright elevator.

He paused when he heard it. A sweet little melody. An old tune no one remembered the lyrics to. A haunting lullaby that sent a chill through his skin.

The Red Queen's song. The one she always sang.

The Extractor stopped and turned around. Looking at her. His heart beating wildly in his chest.

Sensing his eyes on her, she turned around and gave him a knowing little smile.

~ End ~

** I'm glad so many of you enjoyed this. I enjoyed writing it. I am working on a new fic and "Inception/Dark Knight" fic. I'll post this up very soon. Put me under _Author Alert_ so you won't miss it. **

** Thanks for the awesome feedback. Love yo faces!**


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